DOCSLIB.ORG

U:V U U:' U U: @ E^ Pinyin Is a Phonetic System for Transcribing the Pro- a A- a A' a Av a A' Nunciation (In Mandarin) of Chinese Characters

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
U:V U U:' U U: @ E^ Pinyin Is a Phonetic System for Transcribing the Pro- a A- a A' a Av a A' Nunciation (In Mandarin) of Chinese Characters TUGboat, Volume 14 (1993)) No. 1 - a a- a a' 5 av a a' Philology - e e- e e' 5 ev i e' T i- i i' T iv i i' - Typesetting Chinese pinyin Using o 0- 6 0' 6 ov o o' - U u- u u' ij uv h u' Virtual Fonts - " Wai Wong U u:- u u:' U u:v u u:' u U: @ e^ Pinyin is a phonetic system for transcribing the pro- A A- A A' A Av A A' nunciation (in Mandarin) of Chinese characters. It E E- E E' i EV E E' - " is in widespread use in China 111. Pinyin is taught to I I- i I' I IV I I' millions of children in schools there. It is also used 0 0- 6 0) d ov o 0' to teach foreigners and speakers of other Chinese u u- u U' 0 uv u U' dialects to learn Mandarin. This paper describes a - package for typesetting pinyin in LAW 121. It uses u u:- u U:' 6 U:v " u: ' the features of virtual fonts and ligatures to provide u U: i E- an easy way of generating fonts for pinyin and a simple input method. This package requires a . dvi Table l: Input formats of pinyin characters driver which is capable of handling virtual fonts. a paragraph of properly tone-marked pznyzn using 1 What is pinyin those macros yourself.) The pznyzn package provides a new style op- Pinyin uses the Latin alphabet to transcribe the tion pinyin to simplify the input and typesetting of sound of Chinese characters. All Chinese charac- pznyzn. This option provides an environment, a sim- ters are single syllables. Each syllable can be divided ple input method and several fonts specially built for into two parts: the initial and the final. The initials pznyzn. To use it, put the word pinyin in the op- are consonants (or sheng mij in Chinese). Some of tional argument of the \documentst yle command. the finals (or yhn mij in Chinese) are pure vowels, the Then, within your document, the pinyin environ- others are combinations of vowels and consonants. ment can be used anywhere. Each syllable can be pronounced in one of four pos- Within the pinyin environment, tone marks sible tones (shsng diao). When writing down pinyin, are input by typing the appropriate character after the tone of the characters is indicated by placing a the main vowel. The characters to mark the tones tone mark on top of the main vowel in the finals. are: - ' v '. For example, ma- ma' mav ma' will For example the vowel a can have the following four produce ma ma m5 ma. Another example shown be- tones 5 a 5 a. low is a poem by the famous poet IT b6i in the Tang There are two styles of writing pinyin: the first dynasty. The input is to separate syllables by spaces, i.e., the pinyin for each character is separated, the second puts the \begin(quote)% pinyin of multi-character words together, like pinyin. \begin(pinyin)% When writing in the second form, syllables begin- chua'ng qia'n mi'ng yue' pa-ng\\ ning with a, e or o may follow a vowel-ending sylla- yi' shi' di' sha'ng shua-ng\\ ble. This will cause confusion. If such case arises, an juv to'u wa'ng mi'ng yueC\\ apostrophe mark (') is used to separate them. For di- to'u si- gu- xia-ng \end(pinyin)% example pya6 (meaning leather jacket). \end(quote) produces 2 How to typeset pinyin Since pinyin uses the Latin alphabet, it would not chu6ng qian ming yui guang be too difficult to typeset it in LATEX, except one has yi shi di shang shuzng to place the tone marks properly. The normal jii t6u wang ming yui accent mark macros may be used for this purpose, di tou si gii xiang but they are not very convenient since you need to put a tone mark on each syllable. (Try typing in The input formats of all possible combinations of the tone marks and vowels are listed in Table 1. TUGboat, Volume 14 (1993), No. I I I I I I I I 'I I '272 u ij 6 1 "Bx "8"9 / "A / "B / "C 1 "D 1 "E 1 "F I Table 2: pinyin character positions The pinyin environment can take an optional pyssio from cmssi0. Ligature tables were defined argument which specifies the font to use. The cur- for each of the vowels to map the combinations of rently available fonts are sf and rm. Conventionally, the vowel and tone mark character to new charac- pinyin is printed in a Sans Serif font, so sf is the ter positions. All new characters and their codes are default as you can see in the examples above. If you listed in Table 2l. The compound characters are de- say fined in terms of the base vowel characters and the \begin{pinyin)[rml ... \end{pinyin) appropriate accent characters. These mappings and character definitions were done in the property list the pinyin text will be typeset in a Roman font. files. For example, the pysslO font is created by the Very often, a small piece of pinyin is embedded following procedures: in running text. A shorthand command \py can be used instead of the pinyin environment. For exam- 1. convert cmssi0.tfm to cmssl0.pl using ple, \py{pi-n yi-n) produces pin yin. Like the en- tftopl; vironment, \py can also take an optional argument 2. copy cmssio . pl into a file named pyssl0.vpl; to specify the font. 3. edit pyssl0.vpl to add the ligature tables and There is a command to specify the size of the new character definitions: pinyin characters: \pysize. It takes a single ar- 4. generate pyssl0.tfm and pyssl0.vf using gument which is the required size. It can be any vptovf . reasonable size for text, such as IOpt, llpt and so The ligature tables for all pznyin fonts should on. The default is IOpt. be identical. Appendix A lists the complete ligature table. When editing the .vpl file, care must be 3 The implementation of the pinyin taken to merge this into the existing table in the package file. The new character definitions have a general The pinyin environment is implemented using vir- form that looks like the example below: tual fonts and ligatures. Two families of virtual (CHARACTER 0 241 fonts. namely pyrn and pyssn, were created for (COMMENT a1 a-1 typesetting pinyin. These pinyin fonts are needed (MAP (PUSH) (SETCHAR C a) (POP) because: (SETCHAR 0 26)) accented characters, e.g., 3, i, which are not (CHARWD R 0.480557) included in ordinary fonts and not even in (CHARHT R 0.608887) the extended (DCIEC) fonts, are required 1 in pinyin; The positions of the lowercase pinyin charac- a special ligature table is required to support ters are arranged in a way that their codes are equal the input method in the pinyin environment. to the least significant byte of GB codes (the Chi- These pinyin fonts are based on the Computer Mod- nese national standard). For example, 3 at position ern fonts, i.e., pyr10 is modified from cmrlO and "A1 has GB code A8A1 in hexadecimal. TUGboat, Volume 14 (1993), No. 1 for single accent in (-, ', ", ' , ", ^) if the base character basechar is in (a, e. o, u) wd is the width of basechar ht is the height of accent no movement is need for setting the character the program is: (PUSH) (SETCHAR basechar ) (POP) (SETCHAR accent) if the base character basechar is i . basechar becomes 1 (the dotless i) wd is the width of basechar ht is the height of accent the program is: (PUSH) (MOVELEFT (wdaCcent- ~dbasechar)/2) (SETCHAR accent ) (POP) (SETCHAR dotless i) for double accent wd is the width of the base character (u) ht + htddot + htaccent - htu the program is: (PUSH) (SETCHAR C u) (POP) (PUSH) (SETCHAR 0 177) (POP) (MOVEUP htddot- htu) (SETCHAR accent) Figure 1: Algorithm for pinyin character definitions. This is the definition for character 2 whose char- mechanize the generation of new font files by a pro- acter code is ,241. The MAP property specifies how gram. To achieve the perfect result, manual editing, this character is generated. It first saves the cur- i.e., moving the accents or base character around, is rent position, typesets the character a in the current necessary. base font and recovers the current position. It then overprints the accent character - whose code is '26. This is the simplest case since the accents in CM 4 A sample installation fonts were designed so that they do not need to be This package has been developed and tested in UNIX raised or lowered for most lower _case letters. For systems. It will not be difficult to port it to other more complicated characters like ii, the second ac- systems; in fact, the style file and the font files can cent mark (the one on top) has to be moved up. The be moved to other systems without any change pro- amount can be calculated using the heights of the vided that the new environment has m and . dvi base character and the accents given in the original driver supporting virtual fonts. The remainder of .pl file. The CHARWD and CHARHT properties specify this section describes an installation procedure in the width and height of the new character. They are UNIX systems as an example. calculated from the widths and heights of the base This package is distributed as a uuencoded and accent characters.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Inscriptional Records of the Western Zhou
    INSCRIPTIONAL RECORDS OF THE WESTERN ZHOU Robert Eno Fall 2012 Note to Readers The translations in these pages cannot be considered scholarly. They were originally prepared in early 1988, under stringent time pressures, specifically for teaching use that term. Although I modified them sporadically between that time and 2012, my final year of teaching, their purpose as course materials, used in a week-long classroom exercise for undergraduate students in an early China history survey, did not warrant the type of robust academic apparatus that a scholarly edition would have required. Since no broad anthology of translations of bronze inscriptions was generally available, I have, since the late 1990s, made updated versions of this resource available online for use by teachers and students generally. As freely available materials, they may still be of use. However, as specialists have been aware all along, there are many imperfections in these translations, and I want to make sure that readers are aware that there is now a scholarly alternative, published last month: A Source Book of Ancient Chinese Bronze Inscriptions, edited by Constance Cook and Paul Goldin (Berkeley: Society for the Study of Early China, 2016). The “Source Book” includes translations of over one hundred inscriptions, prepared by ten contributors. I have chosen not to revise the materials here in light of this new resource, even in the case of a few items in the “Source Book” that were contributed by me, because a piecemeal revision seemed unhelpful, and I am now too distant from research on Western Zhou bronzes to undertake a more extensive one.
    [Show full text]
  • Title <Translated Article> Western Zhou History in the Collective
    <Translated Article> Western Zhou History in the Collective Title Memory of the People of the Western Zhou: An Interpretation of the Inscription of the "Lai pan" Author(s) MATSUI, Yoshinori Citation 東洋史研究 (2008), 66(4): 712-664 Issue Date 2008-03 URL https://doi.org/10.14989/141873 Right Type Journal Article Textversion publisher Kyoto University 712 WESTERN ZHOU HISTORY IN THE COLLECTIVE MEMORY OF THE PEOPLE OF THE WESTERN ZHOU: AN INTERPRETATION OF THE INSCRIPTION OF THE "LAI PAN" MATSUI Y oshinori Introduction On January 19, 2003, twenty-seven bronze pieces were excavated from a hoard at Yangjiacun (Meixian county, Baoji city, Shaanxi province).l All the bronzes, which include twelve ding ~, nine Ii rn, two fanghu 11 if., one pan ~, one he :ii\'t, one yi [ffi, and one yu k, have inscriptions. Among them, the bronzes labeled "Forty-second-year Lai ding" ~ ~ (of which there are two pieces), "Forty-third-year Lai ding" (ten pieces), and "Lai pan" ~~ (one piece) have in­ scriptions that are particularly long for inscriptions from the Western Zhou period and run respectively to 281, 316 and 372 characters in length. The inscription of the "Lai pan," containing 372 characters, is divided into two parts, the first part is narrated from Lai's point of view but employs the third-person voice, opening with the phrase, "Lai said." The second part records an appointment (ceming :IlJt frJ) ceremony that opens, "The King said." The very exceptional first part records the service of generations of Lai's ancestors to successive Zhou Kings. The inscription mentions eleven former kings, King Wen X3:., King Wu TIk3:., King Cheng JIlG3:., King Kang *3:., King Zhao BR3:., King Mu ~~3:., King Gong *3:., King Yi i~3:., King Xiao ~(~)3:., King Yi 1J$(~)3:., King Li Jj1U (J~)3:.
    [Show full text]
  • Piece Mold, Lost Wax & Composite Casting Techniques of The
    Piece Mold, Lost Wax & Composite Casting Techniques of the Chinese Bronze Age Behzad Bavarian and Lisa Reiner Dept. of MSEM College of Engineering and Computer Science September 2006 Table of Contents Abstract Approximate timeline 1 Introduction 2 Bronze Transition from Clay 4 Elemental Analysis of Bronze Alloys 4 Melting Temperature 7 Casting Methods 8 Casting Molds 14 Casting Flaws 21 Lost Wax Method 25 Sanxingdui 28 Environmental Effects on Surface Appearance 32 Conclusion 35 References 36 China can claim a history rich in over 5,000 years of artistic, philosophical and political advancement. As well, it is birthplace to one of the world's oldest and most complex civilizations. By 1100 BC, a high level of artistic and technical skill in bronze casting had been achieved by the Chinese. Bronze artifacts initially were copies of clay objects, but soon evolved into shapes invoking bronze material characteristics. Essentially, the bronze alloys represented in the copper-tin-lead ternary diagram are not easily hot or cold worked and are difficult to shape by hammering, the most common techniques used by the ancient Europeans and Middle Easterners. This did not deter the Chinese, however, for they had demonstrated technical proficiency with hard, thin walled ceramics by the end of the Neolithic period and were able to use these skills to develop a most unusual casting method called the piece mold process. Advances in ceramic technology played an influential role in the progress of Chinese bronze casting where the piece mold process was more of a technological extension than a distinct innovation. Certainly, the long and specialized experience in handling clay was required to form the delicate inscriptions, to properly fit the molds together and to prevent them from cracking during the pour.
    [Show full text]
  • ENGLISH CHINESE CHARACTER CHINESE PINYIN REMARKS Zero
    www.yiwu-market-guide.com Jack Yang Mob. +86 159 2428 6660 CHINESE ENGLISH CHINESE PINYIN REMARKS CHARACTER zero 零/0 ling often writen as 0 one 一/1 yi often writen as 1 two 二/2 er often writen as 2 three 三/3 san often writen as 3 four 四/4 si often writen as 4 five 五/5 wu often writen as 5 six 六/6 liu often writen as 6 seven 七/7 qi often writen as 7 eight 八/8 ba often writen as 8 nine 九/9 jiu often writen as 9 ten 十/10 shi often writen as 10 eleven 十一/11 shi yi shi er = 12, shi san=13, shi si= 14… twenty 二十/20 er shi er shi yi=21, er shi er = 22, er shi san=23… thirty 三十/30 san shi hundred 百/100 yi bai yi bai yi shi=110, yi bai yi shi er=112, yi bai wu shi wu = 155 one hundred and one 一百零一/101 yi bai ling yi thousand 千/1000 yi qian dollar 块 kuai "kuai" in money means "dollar" mao 毛 mao "mao" in money means "ten cents" fen 分 fen "fen" in money means " cent" 1.3 Chinese dollar 一块三 yi kuai san 1 "kuai"=10"mao"=100"fen" www.yiwu-market-guide.com Jack Yang Mob. +86 159 2428 6660 www.yiwu-market-guide.com Jack Yang Mob. +86 159 2428 6660 how much is this? 这个多少钱？ zhe ge duo shao qian? "zhe ge" means "this" priced at one pack? 是一包的价钱吗？ shi yi bao de jia qian ma? "yi bao de jia qian" means "price of 1 pack" how much one pack? 多少钱一包？ duo shao qian yi bao? "yi bao" means "1 pack" priced at one dozen? 是一打的价钱吗？ shi yi da de jia qian ma? "yi da de jia qian" means "price of 1 dozen" how much one dozen? 多少钱一打？ duo shao qian yi da? "yi da" means "1 dozen" priced at one roll? 是一卷的价钱吗？ shi yi juan de jia qian ma? "yi juan de jia qian" means "price of 1 roll"
    [Show full text]
  • The History of the History of the Yi, Part II
    MODERNHarrell, Li CHINA/ HISTORY / JULY OF 2003THE YI, PART II REVIEW10.1177/0097700403253359 Review Essay The History of the History of the Yi, Part II STEVAN HARRELL LI YONGXIANG University of Washington MINORITY ETHNIC CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE 1980S AND 1990S The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is, according to its constitution, “a unified country of diverse nationalities” (tongyide duominzu guojia; see Wang Guodong, 1982: 9). The degree to which this admirable political ideal has actually been respected has varied throughout the history of the PRC: taken seriously in the early and mid-1950s, it was systematically ignored dur- ing the twenty years of High Socialism from the late 1950s to the early 1980s and then revived again with the Opening and Reform policies of the past two decades (Heberer, 1989: 23-29). The presence of minority “autonomous” ter- ritories, preferential policies in school admissions, and birth quotas (Sautman, 1998) and the extraordinary emphasis on developing “socialist” versions of minority visual and performing arts (Litzinger, 2000; Schein, 2000; Oakes, 1998) all testify to serious attention to multinationalism in the cultural and administrative realms, even if minority culture is promoted in a homogenized socialist version and even if everybody knows that “autono- mous” territories are far less autonomous, for example, than an American state or a Swiss canton. But although the party state now preaches multinationalism and allows limited expression of ethnonational autonomy, it also preaches and promotes progress—and thus runs straight into a paradox: progress is defined in objectivist, modernist terms, which relegate minority cultures to a more MODERN CHINA, Vol.
    [Show full text]
  • Three Debates on the Historicity of the Xia Dynasty
    Journal of chinese humanities 5 (2019) 78-104 brill.com/joch Faithful History or Unreliable History: Three Debates on the Historicity of the Xia Dynasty Chen Minzhen 陳民鎮 Assistant Researcher, Beijing Language and Culture University, China [email protected] Translated by Carl Gene Fordham Abstract Three debates on the historicity of the Xia dynasty [ca. 2100-1600 BCE] have occurred, spanning the 1920s and 1930s, the late 1900s and early 2000s, and recent years. In the first debate, Gu Jiegang 顧頡剛 [1893-1980], Wang Guowei 王國維 [1877-1927], and Xu Xusheng 徐旭生 [1888-1976] pioneered three avenues for exploring the history of the Xia period. The second debate unfolded in the context of the Doubting Antiquity School [Yigupai 疑古派] and the Believing Antiquity School [Zouchu yigu 走出疑古] and can be considered a continuation of the first debate. The third debate, which is steadily increasing in influence, features the introduction of new materials, methods, and perspectives and is informed by research into the origins of Chinese civilization, a field that is now in a phase of integration. Keywords doubting antiquity – faithful history – unreliable history – Xia dynasty The question of the historicity of the Xia dynasty [ca. 2100-1600 BCE] may be considered from two perspectives. First, did the Xia dynasty exist? Second, on the whole, are the accounts relating to the Xia dynasty as recorded in ancient texts reliable? This perspective tends to center upon the veracity of the his- torical events involving Yu the Great 大禹. Different people at different
    [Show full text]
  • Chinese Bronzes from the Meiyintang Collection Volume 2 Christian
    Chinese Bronzes from the Meiyintang Collection Volume 2 Christian Deydier Chinese Bronzes from the Meiyintang Collection Volume 2 Chinese Bronzes from the Meiyintang Collection Volume 2 Christian Deydier Contents 9 Foreword 11 Chronology 13 Map 14 Studies of archaic Chinese bronze ritual vessels 24 Casting techniques 28 Fake bronzes 36 Shapes Catalogue 57 I - Xia / Erlitou culture 73 II - Early Shang / Erligang period 103 III - Late Shang / Yinxu period 151 IV - Western Zhou dynasty 187 V - Early Eastern Zhou / Spring and Autumn period 203 VI - Late Eastern Zhou / Warring States period 217 VII - Han dynasty 220 Bibliography 6 7 Since the publication of Volume 1 of Chinese Bronzes in the Meiyintang Collection, the collection has expanded and fifty more ritual bronzes have been added to those which have already been published. Many of the new acquisitions take us back to the very origins of bronze- vessel casting in China or, in other words, to the Erlitou cultural period (19th – 16th centuries BC.) in the Xia dynasty and the Erligang period (16th – 14th centuries BC.) at the beginning of the Shang dynasty. As a result of the collector’s recently renewed concentration on these early periods, the Meiyintang Collection has been able to acquire several exceptional bronzes of the Erlitou period, such as the extremely rare jiao listed as no. 160 (p. 68) and has also, as a result, now become the most complete collection in private hands of bronze ritual vessels of the Erligang period. The archaic bronze vessels in the Meiyintang Collection, probably the most important private collection of its type in terms of the quality, the rarity and the impeccable provenances of its objects, are a concrete testament to and a visual reminder of the primary importance in Chinese culture of the ancestral cult.
    [Show full text]
  • Major Vessel Types by Use
    Major Vessel Types by Use Vessel Use Food Wine Water xian you you Vessel Type ding fang ding li or yan gui yu dou fu jue jia he gu zun lei hu (type 1) (type 2) fang yi pan Development Stage Pottery Prototype Early Shang (approx 1600–1400 BCE) Late Shang (approx 1400–1050 BCE) Western Zhou (approx 1050–771 BCE) Eastern Zhou (approx 770–256 BCE) PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE FROM THE GALLERY Shang Ceremony What was a ceremony at the Shang court like? thrust, now into a matching hollow on the left side David Keightley in his Sources of Shang History of the shell: ‘It is due to Father Jia.’ More time provides a wonderful description of what such passes . another crack forms in response. Moving a ceremony might have entailed. to the next plastron, Chue repeats the charges: ‘It is not due to Father Jia.’ Puk. ‘It is due to Father Jia.’ “Filtering through the portal of the ancestral temple, He rams the brand into the hollows and cracks the the sunlight wakens the eyes of the monster mask, second turtle shell, then the third, then the fourth. bulging with life on the garish bronze tripod. At the center of the temple stands the king, at the center “The diviners consult. The congregation of kinsmen of the four quarters, the center of the Shang world. strains to catch their words, for the curse of a dead Ripening millet glimpsed though the doorway father may, in the king’s eyes, be the work of a Shang-dynasty ritual wine vessel (he), Shang-dynasty ritual wine vessel (jue), shows his harvest rituals have found favor.
    [Show full text]
  • English Language, Large Print
    ENGLISH LANGUAGE, LARGE PRINT Ancient Bells RESOUND of China Resound: Ancient Bells of China Bells were among the first metal objects created in China. Beginning over 3,500 years ago, small, primitive noisemakers grew into gongs and further evolved into sets of hand bells for playing melodies. Centuries of technological experimentation later resulted in sophisticated bells that produced two pitches when struck at different spots. Variations in size, shape, decoration, and sound also reveal regional differences across north and south China. By the late Bronze Age large sets of tuned bells were played in ensemble performances in both areas. Cast from bronze, these durable instruments preserve valuable hints about the character of early Chinese music. Today we can use technology to explore these ancient bells and to explain their acoustical properties, but we know little about the actual sound of this early music. To bring the bells to life, we commissioned three composers to create soundscapes using the recorded tones of a 2,500‐ year‐old bell set on display. Each of them also produced a video projection to interpret his composition with moving images that allow us to "see sound." Unless otherwise indicated, all of these objects are from China, are made of bronze, and were the gift of the Dr. Paul Singer Collection of Chinese Art of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; a joint gift of the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, Paul Singer, the AMS Foundation for the Arts, Sciences, and Humanities, and the Children of Arthur M. Sackler. 2 Symbols of Refinement Chinese regional courts competed with one another on the battlefield and on the music stage.
    [Show full text]
  • Royal Hospitality and Geopolitical Constitution of the Western Zhou Polity*
    T’OUNG PAO T’oung Pao 96 (2010) 1-73 www.brill.nl/tpao Royal Hospitality and Geopolitical Constitution of the Western Zhou Polity* Maria Khayutina (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) Abstract e present article examines how political communication and administration were effected in the Western Zhou polity (1046/5-771 BC) and investigates the significance of the royal residences as political and administrative centers. Bronze inscriptions referring to royal receptions that were offered to Zhou regional rulers, rulers of non- Zhou polities, royal officers and other subjects provide the basis for this study. It is argued that the form of “royal hospitality” described in these inscriptions was a politi- cal and, partially, administrative institution of the Zhou kings, and that its territorial localization both reflected and defined the geopolitical constitution of the polity. e article concludes by arguing that in the “larger Zhou polity” embracing the regional states of the zhuhou, political communication was decentralized, and that none of the royal residences held the status as political “capital” throughout the entire period. It is further found that a process of territorial centralization was underway in the territories under the direct control of the king, and that the oldest royal residence Zhou-under- Qi was gradually established as political and administrative capital. Résumé Cet article s’intéresse à la façon dont opéraient la communication politique et l’admi- nistration dans le régime des Zhou Occidentaux (1046/5-771 av. J.-C.) et cherche à * e present study was supported by the Gerda Henkel Foundation and the Ludwig- Maximilians-Universität of Munich.
    [Show full text]
  • The Prehistory of Chinese Music Theory
    ELSLEY ZEITLYN LECTURE ON CHINESE ARCHAEOLOGY AND CULTURE The Prehistory of Chinese Music Theory ROBERT BAGLEY Princeton University The division of the octave into twelve semitones and the transposition of scales have also been discovered by this intelligent and skillful nation. But the melodies transcribed by travellers mostly belong to the scale of five notes. Helmholtz, On the Sensations of Tone (1863)1 THE EARLIEST TEXTS ABOUT MUSIC THEORY presently known from China are inscriptions on musical instruments found in the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng, the ruler of a small state in the middle Yangzi region, who died in 433 BC. Excavated in 1978, the tomb was an underground palace of sorts, a timber structure furnished with an astonishing array of lordly posses- sions (Fig. 1).2 In two of its four chambers the instruments of two distinct musical ensembles were found. Beside the marquis’s coffin in the east chamber was a small ensemble for informal entertainments, music for the royal bedchamber perhaps, consisting of two mouth organs, seven zithers, and a small drum. In the central chamber, shown under excavation in Figure 2, a much larger ensemble for banquets and rituals was found. Composed of winds, strings, drums, a set of chime stones, and a set of bells, it required more than twenty performers. The inscriptions about music theory appear on the chime stones and the bells. They concern Read at the Academy on 26 October 2004. 1 Quoted from Alexander Ellis’s 1885 translation (p. 258) of the fourth German edition (1877). 2 The excavation report, in Chinese, is Zeng Hou Yi mu (1989).
    [Show full text]
  • Big Ding 鼎 and China Power: Divine Authority and Legitimacy
    Big Ding 鼎 and China Power: Divine Authority and Legitimacy ELIZABETH CHILDS-JOHNSON By the eastern zhou and imperial eras of Chinese history, a legend had grown cel- ebrating the ding 鼎 bronze vessel as the preeminent symbol of state authority and divine power. The mythic theme of “The First Emperor’s [Qin Shi Huangdi’s] Search for the Zhou Ding” or “The First Qin Emperor’s Failure to Discover the Ding” deco- rate the main gables of more than several Eastern Han funerary shrines, including Xiaotangshan and Wuliang in Shandong province (Wu 1989 : 138, 348). Pre-Han records in the Zuozhuan: 7th year of Duke Zhao (左传: 昭公七年) as well as the “Geng- zhu” chapter in the Mozi (墨子: 耕柱篇) record the significance of this mythic representation. The Mozi passage states: In ancient times, King Qi of the Xia [Xia Qi Wang] commissioned Feilian to dig minerals in mountains and rivers and to use clay molds, casting the ding at Kunwu. He ordered Wengnanyi to divine with the help of the tortoise from Bairuo, saying: “Let the ding, when completed, have a square body and four legs. Let them be able to boil without kindling, to hide themselves without being lifted, and to move themselves without being carried so that they will be used for sacrifice at Kunwu.” Yi interpreted the oracle as saying: “The offering has been accepted. When the nine ding have been completed, they will be ‘transferred’ down to three kingdoms. When Xia loses them, people of the Yin will possess them, and when people of the Yin lose them, people of the Zhou will pos- sess them.”1 [italics added] As maintained in this article, the inspiration for this popular legend of mythic power most likely originated during dynastic Shang times with the first casting in bronze of the monumental, four-legged ding.
    [Show full text]